Monday, September 6, 2010

The Lazy Twentysomething's Guide to Sustainability: Organic Beer

Organic - Not just for food anymore!Apparently, Americans drink about 82L beer per capita every year. This places us 13th in the 2004 world rankings behind, well, most of western Europe. The Czech Republic and Ireland are first and second, with 157L and 131L, respectively. We may be woefully behind the rest of the developed world in beer consumption, but that hardly means that we should ignore how the ingredients are grown. Beer is mostly water and malted grain (usually barley or wheat), with a little yeast for fermentation and hops for flavor. It takes about 336 square feet of barley to produce enough barley for one American’’s entire year of beer. The number of acres under barley cultivation worldwide is dwarfed by maize, wheat, and rice, but the rate of fertilizer per hectare is pretty high (pdf). The rationale for drinking organic beer over conventional is basically the same as with eating organic rather than conventional anything. Namely, a lower pesticide and synthetic fertilizer load in the environment and a lower pesticide load in you. Since “100% local” seems to be an impossibility for brewers outside of Germany, we’ll have to settle for USDA certified organic as our green alternative to conventional beer. In an act of staggering generosity, members of the PRI Outreach and Development teams have tested a selection of organic beer in order to provide our readers with a little guidance should they wish to purchase some. We were able to find 3 brands of organic beer at the Finger Lakes Beverage Center*: Pinkus, Peak Organic, and Wolaver’s. A more thorough search would probably turn up an even greater variety. From Pinkus, we tried the Pils and the Munster Alt; from Peak Organic,we tried the IPA, the Pale Ale, the Amber Ale, and the Nut Brown; from Wolaver’s, we tried the IPA, the Pale Ale, the White Ale, the Brown Ale, and the Oatmeal Stout. Here is a summary of the rankings and tasting notes, but the main point is that you don’t have to sacrifice taste to sustainability!Peak Organic Amber Ale

Darker

Syrup-y

Smells better than it tastes

Unbalanced

Awful start, but a good finish

Avg. = 5.375Peak Organic IPA

Righteous

Smells like tomato plants

Honey and citrus scents

Darker than I thought it’d be

Deeper than a hoppy finish

I like the way it starts but it’s bitter at the finish

Avg. = 6.25Wolaver’s IPA

Cleaner than last IPA

Don’t like his one as much – not as much character

Floral and not too bitter

Avg. = 6.625Peak Organic Nut Brown

A little flat

Smells better than the last one

A little earthy

Not a fan, generally, of nut brown ale

Vanilla on the start

Enjoys the complexity

Brown-sugary sweet

Avg. = 7Pinker's Original Unfiltered

Yummy smell

Smooth and not a big finish

Summer beer

Not too flavorful

Citrus-y

“…a decent Bud Light”

Avg. = 7.125Wolaver’s White Ale

Smells like bacon; like breakfast at CNC, like lighter fluid

Citrus-y – more lemon than orange

Needs citrus to be effective

Sweet, and not smoky or salty

Like the highest note on a piano

Too complicated for a beer that you’d put citrus in

Avg. = 7.1875Peak Organic Pale Ale

Smells like soy sauce or the woods

Coffee taste

Acidic

Herbal, earthen flavor

Avg. = 7.3125Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout

“Oh, hello.”

Smoky

Delightful

Tastes like dinner

Not coffee, but espresso

More earthy than other stouts

“Starts sweet, then smoke, then coffee”

It’s like chocolate that’s spent time by a campfire

Avg. = 7.3125Wolaver’s Pale Ale

Solid

Definitely preferred

Easy to drink

Nice finish – not bitter

Warm finish like a soup

Bread-y

Avg. = 7.75Wolaver’s Brown Ale

Smells like a good beer

Completely solid

More than just nutty – Mr. Peanut Party Mix

“tastes like beer to me”

Avg. = 7.83Pinker’s Alt Beer Munster Ale

Molasses and whiskey

Bread-y – pumpernickel

Mellowed out

“I like this. I like this a lot.”

Finishes with depth, and starts like OJ / juice

Smells like grape juice

You can drink this year-round, and all day

Little too sweet overall

Avg. = 8.25Have you tried any organic beer that we missed? How did you like it?*Thanks to the Beverage Center staff for pointing us in the right direction.

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About Me

PRI and its Museum of the Earth is located in Ithaca, NY, and was founded in 1932 by Gilbert Harris, professor of geology at Cornell University, to house his collection and library, the Institution has gone through several expansions, most recently with the creation of the Museum of the Earth. The Museum contains 8000 square feet of permanent exhibits, telling the history of life on Earth through the geological record of the Northeastern U.S. Unique elements include the skeletons of the Hyde Park Mastodon and Right Whale #2030 and the 544 square foot mural, Rock of Ages Sands of Time.